Death Of A Sun
by StartingOver-Lativic
Summary: An Espeon, beaten unconscious, is rescued by a nurse by sheer luck. However, its savior doesn't know of it's curse, nor the fact that there is no stopping its fate. (One-Shot. Espeon used is based off one of my OC's) Reviews, please? If you don't mind...


**Death Of A Sun**

Elena was nervous, a feeling her Chansey reflected as well. This was only her first month as a nurse, and things had already started to go wrong. Badly wrong.  
The two of them had just been strolling peacefully, soaking in the light of a fading dusk as they made their way home. The city was hardly ever busy, and the few apartments in town central were so tranquil, tourists assumed they were empty. Elena had still been dressed in her work outfit: a pristine, official Pokémon nurse uniform that went down to her knees, perfectly complimenting her faded red curls. Her Chansey, a companion she had known since she was a child, wore a matching nurse's cap as well.  
It seemed that it was just another ordinary day. Sick Pokémon had been medicated, but there were no major cases or injuries. There never had been. Until now.  
She had just taken the keys to her house out of her shirt pocket when her Chansey flinched, then tugged at her skirt, pointing worriedly to the side streets. Curious, she let her Pokémon lead her to the problem. After being led into the back alley of her flat, she gasped in shock.  
Laying motionless against a series of smashed and overturned garbage bins was an Espeon. An Espeon! Elena had never seen one in the city before, but upon a close observation, this one was not a normal Espeon. Silver rings, seemingly fused within its fur, around its ears and tail stuck out in her mind. But what shocked the nurse was its condition. The Fox looked malnourished and beaten, cuts and bruises running up and down on its unnaturally bony, frail physique. And it wasn't moving.  
Perhaps it was emotion, an impulse or a lack of training, but Elena quickly scooped up the unconscious Pokémon, clutching it carefully, trying not to tremble.  
"Chansey, we need to get it help." She said, shakily but certain. She had always grown up with a will to tend for the sick, and this Pokémon was no exception. The Espeon's soft, fine fur felt strangely cool, yet matted with grime and the only sign of life came from its faint pulse.  
"Chan!" Chansey exclaimed.  
Elena nodded. The city's clinic. She doubted it had the necessary facilities to help the injured Pokémon, but she had no where else to go, and no other plan to use.  
She took off running, white shoes clapping against the ground as she sprinted through the streets. Pedestrians were reduced to mere obstacles, many of them stunned by the oddity of her situation. A car swerved and honked at her as she crossed the road, and whether the driver's cry afterwards was of anger or concern she didn't know. She barely noticed the considerable drop in temperature, the gathering clouds or the street lamps flickering into life as darkness fell. Nothing mattered more than the sick-looking Pokémon in her arms.  
It seemed like no time at all, but the clinic, a simple Orange and white building with the Poké Ball symbol loomed up ahead of her. From what she knew, the Pokémon center was not equipped enough to really help the injured Pokémon, but she knew someone who could help.  
"Keith!" She cried.  
Leaning against the front door was a young man in a turtleneck and jeans, absently fiddling with his curly, auburn hair. Keith was almost thirty but could've passed for younger. And just like Elena, he was still rather new to his job.  
Seeing Elena, he quickly straightened up, brushed his hair to the side and ran to her.  
"What's the matter?" He asked, noticing his partner's distress. His Brown eyes then focused on the Espeon, and he cringed. "Oh..."  
"Keith, it needs help. Look at it..." She trailed off, holding up the unconscious Fox.  
"But...this is a clinic." Keith stuttered, uncertain. "How can...?"  
"Keith!" Elena interjected. "You're the ambulance driver! Surely you'd know where a better hospital would be!" She stared at him pleadingly. If this Espeon fell through, she would never forgive herself. She had found the poor creature, and was determined to help it.  
Keith must have seen that in her as well, because whatever resolve he had been holding onto faded.  
"Follow me." He said urgently. "The nearest hospital I know is twenty minutes from here by car." He turned and ran to the clinic's unoccupied car park, making a beeline for the ambulance: a rugged, squarish vehicle the same color as the looming, darkening clouds above. Without wasting a moment, Elena followed him.  
Keith quickly yanked open the rear doors and gestured to Elena to get in.  
The back of the ambulance was converted into a temporary hospital, complete with a mobile stretcher and shelves lined with various medications, painkillers and other apparatus. Not perfect, but it would have to work.  
"Where did you find the poor fellow anyways?" Keith asked as he hopped out of the back, trying not to be too apprehensive.  
Elena opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, a blood-curling howl echoed from across the city, quickly joined by similar sounds that chilled both of them right down to the bone.  
"Never mind!" Keith shouted, face having gone pale as he scrambled to the driver's door. "Get in. Now!"  
As soon as Elena had placed the injured Espeon on the stretcher, the van rumbled and the engine roared into life. She barely had enough time to strap herself and the Pokémon down before the vehicle leaped forward, rapidly gaining speed as Keith put his foot to the floor, darting right onto the streets at speeds that would've been illegal in any normal circumstance.

* * *

Being in the back of the ambulance, with a faded white divider separating driver from passengers, Elena now clung to her seat, her scared breathing muted by the roar of the engine and the wailing siren. Whatever Pokémon had howled from across the city were following them now, she was deathly sure of. The question was: Why? Did it have something to do with this Espeon?  
She stared out the back window, watching the city recede into the darkness, pools of light from the lamps growing fewer and further between, making the road beneath them become more and more unclear.  
She tried to relax a little. Perhaps what was following them had lost their trail. Chansey scooted closer to her, humming softly, an ability that had always calmed the two of them down.  
She couldn't meet eyes, though.  
"I'm worried." She mumbled simply. "We've never been in such a serious situation. And...what if this is worse than it seems?"  
As if on cue, the Espeon jolted awake, eyes wide with the alarm of someone who's woken up in an unfamiliar place. Laying on its back, it tried to turn itself over, yet couldn't move without hissing in pain.  
Elena risked unbuckling herself and tried to get to the paralyzed Pokémon, and paid the price for it when the ambulance slammed over a pothole with so much force it felt like it was trying to tear the vehicle apart. Elena slammed into the back door, numbness shooting straight up her shoulder, followed by a wave of blinding pain. Pushing the unpleasant feeling aside, she got to the side of the stretcher and knelt down next to the Espeon. Her first thought was its eyes, which were definitely uncharacteristic of an Espeon; with narrow lavender slits for pupils within a rose pink sclera. They stared right at her, with the confusion and fear that said 'Where am I?'  
She put her hand to its forehead, which was now burning with fever underneath the velvet-like fur.  
"Shhh..." She said, trying to sound soothing, but the roar of the engine forced her to speak up. The ambulance struck another pothole before launching off the ground and landing with a spine-jarring jolt as it raced onwards. Elena uttered a silent prayer that Keith knew what he was doing, then returned her attention to the Espeon.  
"You'll be fine." She said, gently stroking its fur.  
That's when the Psychic's ears shot bolt upright, startling Elena into scooting back a fraction.  
"Esp-!" It gasped, voice sickly and more ragged than sandpaper.  
"What's wrong?" She asked, startled and nervous.  
Chansey whispered, causing Elena to turn to her companion, who was staring out of the back window, body nearly petrified with terror.  
Before she could inquire over what was wrong, something pounded against the back door, nearly freezing her nerves as well. Whatever had done so then howled, and Elena was now certain that their mysterious pursuers had caught up to them. And if they had managed to catch a speeding ambulance this quickly, they were definitely not human.  
Another pound, very similar to a sledgehammer's impact, dented the back door, nearly bursting through the steel frame. Elena had to resist the urge to scream, then swallowed her panic and peeked through the back window. When she did, she didn't have the power to hold back the scream.  
Houndooms, six of the ferocious canines, were nipping at their heels. But from what Elena could see, these weren't normal ones as well, from their savage, bloodlust-filled eyes highlighted by the red taillights, to their effortless, frighteningly faster-than-real stride, which seemingly defied time, with each stride forward propelling their lithe, menacing forms ever closer to them. And they were taking a lot of strides.  
One of them, presumably the pack leader, lowered his head and charged again at the back door, ramming his curved, razor-sharp horns against the metal with a horrid crashing sound. Elena screamed as horns pierced metal, the offending Houndoom barking viciously at her as it backed up for another attack.  
Terrified, Elena lunged for the emergency phone, now dangling by its cord, and hit the speed dial button for the driver.  
"What is it?!" Keith screamed over the line and over the roaring engine.  
"Lose them!" She shouted back desperately, before the line went dead.  
But, even if he didn't know what was after them, Keith got the message, the ambulance gunning forward despite the engine's protest.  
The Espeon made a low, gurgling sound, eyes tight with pain. Chansey held its paw gently, trying to channel some of her healing power to it, but it had no effect.  
Elena risked a glance out the window, where the Houndooms were nowhere to be seen. Confused, she stared blankly into the distance, watching the cracks, potholes and faded white lines pass underneath in a blur, each bathed in the glow of the taillights for a brief moment each.  
Elena allowed herself a quick breath, then turned to her patient.  
"What do they want from you?" She wondered, placing a cold towel around the Espeon like a blanket.  
The Sun pokémon only stared weakly at her, shivering from fever despite the cool cloth.  
For a long moment, only the sound of the straining engine, the droning siren and the rocking of the ambulance filled the vehicle. The light above them flickered briefly, its circuitry perhaps disrupted by the constant vibrations.  
"Where did they go, anyways?" She muttered.  
In that moment, the siren started to die down, its wail slowly reduced to silence. Glancing upwards, Elena braced for the worst. But not even that spared her from the shock when a blast of flame surged through the roof, nearly incinerating her hair as it reduced the metal barrier to liquid.  
The next thing she knew, the massive form of a Houndoom had her pinned to the floor, its mouth twisted in a gruesome, frothing snarl. She stared, horrified, into the demonic, almost possessed evil of its eyes, too scared to even scream. Smoke filled the room, preventing any sight of Chansey or Espeon, but judging by the joining choir of growls, they were being surrounded by similar Houndooms.  
The one above her craned its neck back, opening its mouth into a terrifying array of knife-like fangs, ready to chew her face clean off.  
Perhaps too scared to panic, Elena found her voice.  
"Chansey! Egg Bomb!" She screamed.  
Driven by the command, her Pokémon quickly threw one of its eggs at the Houndoom, a bitumen-sized blast blowing it against the wall. Elena shakily got to her feet, her companion lobbing more explosives at their invaders. The smoke now completely obscured all vision; she couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face.  
"Leave us alone!" She screamed shakily, almost suffocating from the sooty, dark smoke.  
In the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of bone streak past her side, rushing past her with a growl of pure rage. The next sound she heard was the chomp of fangs, followed by a strangled, agonised wail of an Espeon.

* * *

Everything past by her so quickly after that. The Houndooms started turning on themselves, perhaps fighting over a piece of their victim. Something screamed in horror, and Elena suspected it was her. Then, she found herself charging at the beasts with a medical drill, forcing the creatures to flee, and they retreated through the hole in the roof, leaping over each other in the process.  
It took a moment for her to process what had happened, but once she realized what she was doing, she quickly shut off the drill and threw it across the van, hands shaking violently.  
And then she saw the blood trickle towards her, and when she found its source, a mixture of shock, horror and disbelief flooded over her.  
Trembling vacantly, groaning in unrestricted agony, the Espeon lay in a pool of its own blood, hind legs crouched in to try an staunch the streams of fluid from the gaping hole in its chest, which had deeply stained its mottled fur crimson.  
She rushed over to it, quickly pulling out a stretch of thread, a needle and a scalpel from the nearby drawer. She'd never attempted what she was about to do before, but there was no other way.  
Her mind went on autopilot, hands suddenly calm and controlled as she carefully cut out a kidney so grotesquely ripped to shreds it was nothing more than a parasite now.  
The Espeon cried in pain as the damaged kidney was ripped out, eyes streaming tears as fast as its chest gouged blood. Holding the chewed-up, gooey, bloodstained organ in her bare hand would've made Elena retch under normal circumstances, but her emotions were no longer in control.  
Still crouched on the floor, she flicked the remnant out through the gap in the door, hoping to distract the pursuers for a few vital moments. Hands scrambling for the needle, she heard the Espeon growl, then weakly kick away the nylon thread for the stitching. It growled, painfully but defiantly at her.  
"Chansey, Heal Pulse." She said, suddenly drained and out of options. Tears started running down her face, but she didn't notice. She was too overwhelmed by what had happened, and too worried about the Espeon dying. But if it didn't want to be stitched up, what else could she do? The best she could do was keep it alive for a few more minutes, at best.  
The distant ringing of a phone barely registered in her mind, but she saw the phone dangling from its cord, red bulb flashing and ringing.  
"Hello?" She coughed, choking back tears.  
"What happened back there?!" Keith's concerned voice yelled over the line.  
Elena only sobbed. "Keith, please... Just hurry."  
"The upcoming corners are too dangerous. I need to be careful!"  
"You have to hurry or their won't be a Pokémon left to care for!" She screamed back.  
If Keith was too stunned to response, putting his foot to the floor was enough of an answer. With a guttural scream of protest, the Ambulance swung right through a series of bends, threatening to topple over at each one.  
After a frightfully long time, or so it felt like, the road at last straightened out, and Keith slammed on the brakes, the Ambulance skidding sideways with an ear-piercing screech.  
Elena kicked open the back door, which broke right of off its hinges, and came face-to-face with a decrepit looking hospital, which had two stunned surgeons, wearing green uniforms and face masks, staring back at her. They were obviously expecting a distressed situation, but were still surprised.  
"Medics!" Elena cried, jolting them into action. She grabbed one end of the stretcher while one of them -his metallic nametag read Toby- hoisted up the other.

* * *

Flying past stunned employees as they ran straight for the operation room, the Espeon still moaning inaudibly, Elena couldn't control the river of tears in her face as she looked down at the bloodied, paling Pokémon. In the dim fluorescent lights, it looked sicker than a corpse, yet it's eyes stared at her with a painful sympathy, as if it wasn't blaming her.  
Before she could even think of what she could say, the doors to the operation room flew open, and the stretcher was carefully placed on the operating table, flanked by two more waiting surgeons.  
"Lord and Arceus above us." Toby swore, adjusting a light over the Pokémon.  
"Watch your mouth and get the patient stabilized." One of the surgeons snapped back at him.  
Elena moved aside as the four surgeons set to work, staunching the gap in the Espeon's chest. One of them misplaced his hand and caused the Pokémon to lurch forward, coughing blood everywhere. One of the operatives gagged but held back his disgust, immediately trying to steady the dying Pokémon.  
A knackered, sweat-drenched Keith put an arm around Elena, trying to comfort her as the operation continued, he himself as worried as the others.  
"I'm sorry." he said.  
Elena only stared vacantly at the surgeons, who seemed increasingly perplexed by the damage done to the Espeon. Pokémon surgery was uncommon, and the more powerful the Pokémon, the more difficult operating on it was.  
And then the howls echoed through the halls, shaking everyone down to the bone. Keith ran to the door, and his grave face indicated the worse.  
"They're here." He announced, pressing his back against the door.  
Elena ran to one of the surgeons. "Brace the doors. I'll take over." She pleaded.  
The surgeon, face beaded with sweat, nodded and ran to Keith's side as the beasts slammed against the doors, growling.  
The Espeon's tail flicked in alarm, and the Psychic slowly rose into a sitting position, much to the surgeons' surprise, and stared weakly at the doors.  
'Please...' It pleaded telepathically, a sad, weak male's voice bounced inside the heads of the others. 'Just let it end.'  
The Houndooms burst through the doors, trampling over Keith and the other surgeon, the pack leader lunging for the exposed Espeon, eyes blazing with hunger and mouth frothing and outstretched, aiming for its kill.  
The Espeon didn't try to move. It just stared, emotionless, into the gaping maw of its doom, its lifelong torment, a lost battle from day one, finally at an end.  
'Just let it end...'


End file.
